Isa 23:1-18. Prophecy Respecting Tyre.
Menander, the historian, notices a siege of Tyre by Shalmaneser, about the time of the siege of Samaria. Sidon, Acco, and Old Tyre, on the mainland, were soon reduced; but New Tyre, on an island half a mile from the shore, held out for five years. Sargon probably finished the siege. Sennacherib does not, however, mention it among the cities which the Assyrian kings conquered (thirty-sixth and thirty-seventh chapters). The expression, "Chaldeans" (Isa 23:13), may imply reference to its siege under Nebuchadnezzar, which lasted thirteen years. Alexander the Great destroyed New Tyre after a seven months' siege.
1. Tyre—Hebrew, Tsur, that is, "Rock."
ships of Tarshish—ships of Tyre returning from their voyage to Tarshish, or Tartessus in Spain, with which the Phœnicians had much commerce (Eze 27:12-25). "Ships of Tarshish" is a phrase also used of large and distant-voyaging merchant vessels (Isa 2:16; 1Ki 10:22; Ps 48:7).
no house—namely, left; such was the case as to Old Tyre, after Nebuchadnezzar's siege.
no entering—There is no house to enter (Isa 24:10) [G. V. Smith]. Or, Tyre is so laid waste, that there is no possibility of entering the harbor [Barnes]; which is appropriate to the previous "ships."
Chittim—Cyprus, of which the cities, including Citium in the south (whence came "Chittim"), were mostly Phœnician (Eze 27:6). The ships from Tarshish on their way to Tyre learn the tidings ("it is revealed to them") of the downfall of Tyre. At a later period Chittim denoted the islands and coasts of the Mediterranean (Da 11:30).